A Thousand Words
by The Fifth Dimension
Summary: They say that a picture's worth a thousand words. Unfortunately for Becky and Alexa, the thousand words from this particular picture were all synonyms for 'fired.'


**Author's Note: Not much to say here, except I don't write enough about these two (or anyone, really) as their actual selves outside of their characters, so here's another one of those.**

* * *

 _ **A Thousand Words**_

* * *

After a full week of arduous wrestling matches and a brutal travel schedule, it was always a pleasant feeling to just unwind with a nice meal, on a day free of any obligations. Though bitter on-screen rivals, Becky's relationship with Alexa was anything but bitter. It was easy to form a friendship, and ultimately a relationship, with the shorter woman, their time spent inside of vehicles totaling to that of a million years, as far as Becky was concerned. Regardless, it wasn't often that they were able to spend much time together out of the ring - as was the case with most wrestling 'couples,' Becky figured - so enjoying lunch together was pure, well, bliss. She could barely keep her eyes off of Alexa.

"Your food's going to get cold if you keep looking up here," Alexa playfully scolded from across the table. How everyone else in the diner wasn't staring at Alexa was beyond Becky's comprehension.

Becky winked at her, then proceeded to quickly stab at her food and take a large mouthful, making a big show of it. "There. Now, where was I?" Like clockwork, her eyes were fixed on the woman again. She was pretty good at playing the lovestruck teenager, she quietly mused, supporting her head with her palms and sighing an oh-so-fake sigh.

"Fine, don't pay attention to your food. Just don't come crying to me when you start choking. 'Would you… URK… help a… poor lass out?'" Alexa closed her eyes, head tilted over, her own dramatic display not phasing Becky in the slightest.

"Real funny," Becky mumbled between bites. "If I had four eyes, this wouldn't be an issue."

"You're right, because if you had four eyes, I probably wouldn't be dating you."

Becky let out a loud gasp, mockingly so. "You really wouldn't date me because of a little 40/40 vision? Shame on you, Lexi."

"I'm not dating an alien."

"I promise I won't probe you. I'd even give you a grand tour of my spaceship."

"Tempting. But no. Maybe if-"

"Excuse me! Becky! Alexa!"

The women in question turned their heads to see a man, roughly in his thirties, approaching them. His clean-cut look coupled together with a suit and tie combo made him stick out like a sore thumb in this diner. How neither of them noticed his presence until now was a mystery in itself. Becky noticed a large camera held between his fingertips that had to be worth more than everything she physically owned. Alexa didn't appreciate being cut off by a random stranger, her expression looking none too pleased as the man spoke. "I'm sorry to bother you."

"Yet you did it anyway," Alexa derisively retorted.

"Alexa." Becky reached out, slapping the blonde on the wrist, the latter pulling her hand back. "I'm happy that you came up to us and all, but can't this wait until after we eat?" It wasn't that they didn't appreciate their fans - they adored them, like misfit children of all shapes and sizes. But while they're eating? At least have the courtesy to wait until after! For goodness' sake. Realizing that the man would never hear her mental advice to him, Becky closed her metaphorical trap and listened to what he had to say.

"Again, I'm so sorry. I'm running late for a meeting, but if I could get a quick picture." He held up his camera to emphasize his point. "I don't even have to be in it."

That was odd. Normally, Becky would be asked to take a dozen selfies with the fan in question. She rarely, if ever, got asked to be in a picture without a fan. She turned over to Alexa, who shared the same confused look. Deciding that it could do no harm, Becky shrugged her shoulders, Alexa belting out a loud groan soon after. "Fine," the blonde stated, sounding a little peeved. Becky made a mental note to make this up to her later.

The man moved to the table's side, moving his head this way and that to get a decent shot. "Okay, and smile!" Becky gave her biggest and brightest smile - Alexa did the same, though clearly her heart wasn't in it. "Perfect. Thanks ladies!" With that, the man ran off and out of the diner, leaving a bewildered pair of women.

"So, that was weird, right?" Becky was the first to say what they were both thinking.

"That was definitely weird," Alexa said, nodding in agreement. "He didn't even hug us or shake our hands or anything."

"Guess the nerves got to him. Poor guy."

Alexa huffed and folded her arms across her chest. "He could've at least waited to catch us outside. The last thing I need to see on the internet is, 'Alexa Bliss hates her fans!' I'm not _actually_ a mean witch."

Becky chuckled, hand reaching for a fork in hopes of continuing her meal. "It'll be fine. How much harm could one guy do anyway?"

It was evident that Alexa still had her doubts, but Becky was content to leave it at that. There was nothing to worry about, she assured herself. It was one guy with a camera - what was the worst that could happen?

* * *

Becky awoke in her shared hotel room to the unsteady movements of her bed, as if an object was bouncing up and down wildly. The 'object,' as it turned out, was none other than Alexa. Becky nearly jumped out of her skin, the blonde's face way too close to her own. "Christ, Lexi!" Becky almost yelled, her heart beating at a hundred beats per second. She grabbed her phone, turning it over to check the time. "You better have a good reason for waking me up at six in the freakin' morning. You know Smackdown's tonight right? I swear if I trip over my own shoelaces, I'm blaming you."

Alexa, still perched on top of Becky, was paying the previously sleeping woman no mind. Instead, she shoved her own phone into Becky's face, anger dripping from every facet of her being. "Look at this."

Becky squinted her eyes, still not quite fully adjusted to the light. Inspecting the phone, Becky could see that this was a Twitter picture. She almost cursed up a storm, wondering why she'd be woken up for a silly Twitter thing, when she took another look at the picture. It was the two of them at a diner, smiling as wide as they could, Alexa's looking a little more forced. Actually, this scene looked familiar. Becky's eyes widened as she put the pieces together, snatching the phone out of Alexa's hand. "That's from yesterday!"

"Uh, ya think?!" Alexa snapped. She took the phone away from Becky and read aloud the Twitter name displayed at the top. "'Wrestling News Weekly.' He tricked us."

"Son of a… he was a reporter." Becky knew there was something off about that man. The way he barely acknowledged them, the way he tried to hurry them along, the way he instantly bolted after he received the photo he wanted. It was almost enough to make her upset. She took a deep breath, trying her best to think about this rationally. "It's okay. We talked about telling everyone at work about us anyway." Truthfully, they'd only kept their relationship a secret due to Paige's recent scandal not sitting well with the higher ups. However, things seemed to be lightening up. There wasn't really a reason to keep hiding it anymore.

For reasons unknown to Becky, that answer didn't appease Alexa at all. "That's not the point, dummy! Look!" She flipped the phone around, her thumb leading Becky to what she needed to see.

Becky nearly threw up.

"Ten… ten thousand Likes? It's only been up for an hour!" It was true - the picture had been up for only one hour, yet the amount of Likes it was getting seemed to only increase as the minutes ticked by. Even worse, the Retweets were also escalating in the same manner, which meant that even more people would see it as the day went on. This was just the tip of the iceberg.

"We're supposed to be enemies! This is going to ruin everything!"

Alexa was right. Though many people knew that WWE programming - like every professional wrestling program - was scripted, to a degree. However, it was _presented_ as real, and that's where things got complicated. For the most part, their personal lives were supposed to be kept under wraps, especially if it interfered with any ongoing storylines. Even the superstars' Twitter accounts generally were kept within the WWE realm of fiction. There were some outliers - namely The Bellas, and perhaps Randy Orton - but that's normally how things worked, and now their careers were in jeopardy over one simple photo. There was no drummed up back-and-forth that they could come up with to salvage this sinking ship.

"Becky!"

"I-I'm thinking! I mean, I mentioned that we traveled together on a podcast once. I-It's probably not as terribly, terribly… _terribly_ awful as we think it is!"

"Yeah? Well this is different! There's," Alexa glanced at her phone, squeaking in horror, "twelve thousand people that have seen this, maybe more!" She was clearly worried, a sentiment that Becky shared. Alexa scrolled through the tweet, sharing some of the replies. "'Omg, what does this mean?' 'They look so cute together, wonder what they're up to!'"

Becky looked over Alexa's shoulder, reading some of them for herself. "Okay, well at least nobody's guessed that we were on a date."

"Yet. It's only a matter of time before people start drumming up conspiracy theories. What are we going to do?!"

Before Becky could even begin to formulate some kind of master plan, she received a text. She didn't have to wonder for very long who it was from, the name 'Mark Carrano' sending off explosions and sirens in her head. She read the text aloud. "'I need to see you and Alexa immediately.' Damn." No beating around the bush. Alexa's shoulders slumped as Becky thought about all of the terrible ways this meeting could go. The worst part was that Alexa received no text of her own. He knew they were together.

This wasn't good.

* * *

Becky's leg muscles were on fire, her chest was filled with an intense burning, and her lungs were gasping for air. The saddest thing was that she had yet to even compete, her body ready to shut down from her constant pacing, the knowledge that her upcoming meeting might not go so smoothly causing anxiety beyond belief. Alexa, meanwhile, was sitting on the floor, face buried in her hands as she groaned loudly. Suffice to say, she was equally as anxious as Becky, choosing to release her pent up energy in a different manner.

The show was starting in only a couple of hours, and the duo had no idea what their plans for the night were, or if they'd even have plans for the night after this meeting - Oh, who were they kidding? This was going to be a scolding - with Mark Carrano. Though, Becky didn't care much about tonight's program. While she hated not being able to put on a fantastic showing for the crowd, what really stung about this situation was the fact that there was, perhaps, a chance that their bosses would try to split them up in one way or another.

No, Becky told herself. She wasn't going to let them do that. She'd just have to do what she did best, and that's fight. Fight for her friendship, fight for her _relationship_. She put a reassuring hand on Alexa's shoulder, squeezing it gently, sharing a warm smile with the woman currently as lost as she was. It was almost amusing. One picture, one tweet, was enough to send her into this over dramatic spiel. She would've laughed had the situation not been extremely dire.

Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed someone walking down the hallway in their direction. Her heart nearly stopped thinking it was Carrano himself, but once they walked into view, the person revealed themselves to be Dolph Ziggler. Becky was ready to give him a half-hearted wave, but just like that an idea formed in her head. She grabbed Dolph by the brim of his jacket, his body lurching backwards.

He yelped in surprise, taking a second to balance himself after the stunt Becky pulled. "If you wanted my attention, you could've just said, 'Hey, Dolph!' Don't have to give me whiplash."

"This is really serious."

"And as you know, Dolph Ziggler is the epitome of seriousness," the man stated without a trace of the seriousness he mentioned. Alexa was aware of the conversation taking place but remained largely quiet, unsure of what Becky was trying to accomplish. "What's eaten ya?"

Becky took a deep breath, hoping to express this as concisely, and as quickly, as she could. "When Rusev and Lana's engagement went public, did they get chewed out for it? You know, in the back? With all the bookers?" Becky realized that she had no earthly clue how to go about asking this question. She'd never been the closest of friends with Lana so she didn't know exactly how it all went down. Dolph was entangled in a bizarre storyline with her at that time, and any and all insights into Carrano's thought process could help them out. It had to.

"I think you'd be better off asking Lana about that."

"Well do you _see_ Lana here, Mr. Ziggles?" she stated between clenched teeth, rapping her knuckles against the front of Dolph's forehead.

"Got it, got it!" Dolph said, trying to slap Becky's hand away. "If you really want to know, they did think about splitting them up somehow and just having Rusev stay with Summer. There wasn't a brand split at the time, so it's not like they could've sent him to Smackdown or something."

"You think they would've?" Alexa asked, adding herself to the conversation. She'd been biting her nails, nervousness surfacing in the form of bad habits.

Dolph raised an eyebrow. "Why are you guys asking about this almost two years later? Is it about that picture?"

"Even he's seen it, Becks."

"Terrific," Becky added, sarcasm oozing from her voice. It seems that everyone had seen the damn thing by now. "It, um, might have something to do with that."

"Okay, well, to answer your question - yeah, they probably would've. They talked about doing a lot worse. Though those two had the added benefit of being in an actual relationship, so who knows."

Becky perked up at those words. "You think being in a relationship will give us some leverage?" When Dolph gave her a surprised look, she turned her head to Alexa who buried her head in her hands again. 'Thanks for the save, Lexi,' Becky grumbled to herself. "H-Hypothetically speaking, of course. Totally, absolutely, one-hundred percent hypothetical." She could hear a barely audible 'Smooth,' from Alexa, who didn't bother picking her head up, but did give Becky a thumbs-up. The jerk.

Dolph's look of surprise shifted, ear-to-ear grin replacing his look of shock. "I knew you two spent a lot of time together."

Alexa wasn't believing that for a second it seemed. "No way you knew that."

"You think I don't take note of all the single women here? You know me better than that. Although, I guess you're not single after all, huh?"

"Fine, you got us," Becky admitted in defeat. "The whole world knows that we hang out now, and we're just worried."

"You should be. They don't take too kindly to their stories getting ruined."

"What should we do?"

"Pray?" When Becky reached out to knock his head again, Dolph continued. "Kidding! Seriously, tell them what's up. They're businessmen, not heartless."

"Is there a difference?" Alexa asked from below. With nothing further to offer them, Dolph wished them the best and went on his way. Both women could only wait and see what their futures held.

Their wait wasn't long, however, as this time it was Mark Carrano in Becky's sights. After helping Alexa to her feet, they were led into his office, not for the first time but possibly the last if this went south. They took their seats in front of his desk, and Becky had 'troubled student in the principal's office' flashbacks playing on repeat. "I'm going to cut to the chase," he began, clasping his hands together. "You both know why you're here, and absolutely - under no circumstances - is it acceptable to seen together and break up months worth of story and booking."

"It wasn't our fault!" Alexa piped in. Becky wanted to tell her to relax, that things would be okay, but she couldn't. "You can't blame us for what some idiot with a camera did."

"Even so, it's your responsibility to make sure things like this don't happen."

"Are you going to send one of us to Raw?" It wasn't what Becky wanted, her voice full of fear, but she had to ask.

"We did think about that for a while, but as of right now, Smackdown only had seven active women on its roster. We need you both here." He stared at them, eyes boring holes into their skulls as he prepared to deliver his swift judgment. "I'm going to have to ask you to stop traveling together. This can't happen again."

"No!"

"Becky-"

"I know we messed up, alright? We should've been paying more attention, but you can't split us up! That's... That's not going to work." Becky didn't want to raise her voice, but she had to fight. What did it matter if she got suspended now anyway? Working for the WWE was a dream come true, but being with Alexa was a never ending fantasy come to life. She didn't want to sacrifice Alexa, and as the younger woman nodded in affirmation of her stance, she knew Alexa felt the same way. "Maybe this isn't the best way to come out with this, but Alexa and I are together. We're not going to split up now."

Becky was adamant, Carrano knew. She always was when she wanted something. Alexa too, seemed to be unwavering in her position. "We respect the personal lives of the superstars that work here, but this is a business. I'm sorry, but ther-"

"Can't you work it into a storyline? Like you did with Lana and Rusev?" Becky was surprised to here Alexa bring this up. Truthfully, the thought of a storyline where she was on friendly terms with Alexa hadn't crossed her mind, not after the past few months of feuding with her. "It doesn't have to be complicated."

Though it looked as if Carrano had already made up his mind, Alexa's words seemed to pique his curiosity. "Look, we've thought about this. It just didn't work."

"Why not? I had lunch with Becky to try and get her out of my hair."

"Hey!"

"Work with me here. Maybe Mickie just… attacks me after a match, sees the picture as… I don't know, a betrayal or something, and Becky makes the save to, uh, get back at Mickie and protect the sanctity of our rivalry? She could team with someone else, if that helps."

Becky scratched her head. She had to give Alexa credit for trying, but it seemed like such a long shot. It definitely wasn't as smoothed out as it could be. She went to give Alexa a 'thanks' for trying, but Carrano cut her off. "Becky, would you be okay with something like this?"

Becky looked at him blankly. "Erm, sure? I-I mean, of course. Yes."

"We'd have to work out the details over the next few weeks, especially because we want to keep your personalities the same, period. But if you really want to stay together, then this has to start tonight. Alexa can face Mickie, and then Becky comes in after the match."

"That's perfect!" Alexa stated excitedly.

"You're giving us a real workload here. Just stay out of trouble from now on."

As the two left his office, Becky grabbed Alexa and brought her in close, hugging her tightly. "You're amazing."

"Not really. It was kind of corny."

"I think it'll work out. The important thing is that we can still travel together."

"Now with less ducking and hiding in public places," Alexa added with a smirk.

Becky laughed, allowing the reality of it all to settle on. Things were going to be okay.

She had never been more excited to see Alexa get beaten up in her entire life.

* * *

Alexa winced as Becky rubbed her thigh down with a bag of ice, the once tanned skin now sporting shades of black and blue. Mickie hadn't lost a step in the ring it seemed, although Alexa tripping over herself didn't help matters. "Told you one of us was gonna trip. Just didn't think it'd be you."

"Yeah yeah, keep icing."

Bruise aside, things had gone well tonight. The story was progressing as planned and Becky was able to make the save accordingly. The thought of being together in public with Alexa - without fear of reporters posting pictures of them online, ones that could ruin her entire living - warmed her heart so much so that she spontaneously kneeled down, lips connecting with Alexa's thigh. She received a flick on the head for her troubles. "Ow!"

"We got the storyline. Don't push it, Becks."

Becky rubbed her head, wondering how someone could have that much finger strength. While Alexa continued to ice her own leg, Becky pulled her phone from within her pocket, taking a minute to type something out.

"Posting my leg on Instagram or something? Make sure you get its good side." Alexa followed this with sharp turns of her leg, to the delight of the orange-haired woman.

"You're a bigger dork than I am, I swear. No, I was posting something to Twitter, see?" She held up her phone, showing Alexa her most recent tweet.

The younger woman smiled, its contents having impressed her greatly. "I think it's perfect." Alexa hopped to her feet and removed the ice from her leg, now significantly less sore than before. "I'm going to go pack up. Coming?"

"Just let me check this out real quick."

"Don't keep me waiting too long."

"Never."

With that, Alexa gave Becky a peck on the cheek, before walking off to the back, a new spring in her step. Becky chuckled and proceeded to check her once more, checking her tweet. It was the picture from yesterday's lunch, quoted by Becky so that she could add her own text.

'An uneasy friendship in the making. Well, guess we'll play this by ear and see where it leads. Wish me luck!'

Pocketing her phone, Becky knew that no luck would be necessary. She already knew where a friendship with Alexa would, and did, lead.

 _ **End**_


End file.
